Question
Description acceptable. Staley and Konopka coined the term for this dilemma, possible causes for which include obligate symbiosis, an inability to form supportive biofilms, or the prevalence of fastidious growth requirements. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name or describe this major problem in microbiology. Recent metagenomic studies estimate that this problem impacts as many as 99 percent of all bacterial species living on Earth, termed VBNCs, greatly restricting their study.
ANSWER: Great Plate Count Anomaly [accept descriptions that most bacteria are unculturable, such as bacteria not growing in (any of the following): laboratory conditions, in vitro, culture, artificial media, Petri dishes, plates, or broth]
[10h] One device that aims to solve the Great Plate Count Anomaly, the iCHIP, does so by allowing bacterial colonies to be grown in agar wells placed in this general substance. This substance is the solid input to a Winogradsky column.
ANSWER: soil samples [or native soil environment; accept dirt or mud in place of “soil”]
[10e] One of the first successful uses of the iCHIP was to isolate the producer of teixobactin, a novel antibiotic used to treat the “methicillin-resistant” strain of this bacterium, which is prevalent in hospitals.
ANSWER: Staphylococcus aureus [or S. aureus; prompt on Staph; prompt on MRSA (“mersa”)]
<RH, Biology>
Data
Summary
| Tournament | Edition | Exact Match? | Heard | PPB | Easy % | Medium % | Hard % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Chicago Open | 07/28/2024 | Y | 15 | 17.33 | 80% | 67% | 27% |